Biologists, archaeologists and anthropologists have built a "genetic map" of the nomads who inhabited the Eurasian steppes in ancient times and in the Middle Ages. In two articles published in Nature and Science Advances (1, 2), scientists described the genetic links between the steppe peoples, as well as the pathways for the spread of certain diseases across Eurasia. In particular, it turned out that the ethnically heterogeneous Scythians at the beginning of our era mixed with the Xiongnu immigrants from East Asia. Later, the Huns who came from the east brought with them the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, which gave rise to the plague pandemic that broke out in the 5th century. Scientists also found out that the people of the Yamnaya culture had nothing to do with the Central Asian steppe, who domesticated horses, or with the migration to South Asia, as a result of which Indo-Iranian languages became known in India.
The Eurasian steppes stretch for eight thousand kilometers from present-day Hungary and Romania in the west to Mongolia and northwest China in the east. Over the past five thousand years, numerous tribes and nationalities have lived on these vast spaces, but the dynamics of their movements, especially in antiquity, have still been little studied. In particular, it is believed that in the last 4-5 thousand years, tribes that spoke Iranian languages first dominated in the steppes, and then they were ousted by the Turkic and Mongol-speaking peoples.
To determine the genetic links between populations and trace how they were associated with linguistic and cultural change, scientists from 16 countries, led by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen, sequenced DNA from the remains of 137 people who lived throughout the steppes - from Europe to Mongolia and from Altai to Tien Shan for four thousand years, from 2500 BC to 1500 AD. For comparison, scientists used the genotype of 502 people belonging to 16 ethnic groups and living in Central Asia, Altai, Siberia and the Caucasus.
As a result, scientists managed to track the fate of the Scythian tribes, the appearance of the Huns in the steppe and the subsequent waves of migrations of the Turkic-speaking peoples. Scythians, speaking Iranian languages and geographically divided into several groups, inhabited the Eurasian steppes in the 1st millennium BC. According to various hypotheses, they either formed as a result of numerous small migrations and local movements, or originated from the North Caucasus or nearby steppes, or migrated from Siberia or from the east of Central Asia. It is believed that the Scythians were genetically similar to representatives of the Yamnaya culture and steppe people from East Asia. However, the authors of the new study did not confirm these results. According to them, the Western ("Hungarian") Scythians are genetically similar to the European Neolithic farmers,and the Asiatic tribes on hunter-gatherers from southern Siberia and Central Asian nomadic pastoralists.
Images of Scythian warriors on an electrum vessel from the 4th century BC. It was found in the Kul Oba mound near Kerch.
At the end of the 1st millennium BC, the Scythians mixed with the tribes of the Xiongnu nomads who came from East Asia. Genetically, the Xiongnu were heterogeneous: one group came from East Asia, while the other was genetically similar to the Central Asian nomads. In the III-IV century AD, the Huns appeared in the Eurasian steppe, who created a huge empire and invaded Europe at the end of the IV century. According to the study, the Huns descended from a small group of conquerors from East Asia who came to the eastern steppes inhabited by the Scythians. In addition, scientists found out that the Huns brought with them the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which became the culprit of the Justinian plague pandemic that broke out in the 5th century in Europe, Central and South Asia, Arabia and North Africa. Researchers found bacterial DNA in the remains of a Hun from East Asia, who lived in the 2nd century,as well as in the remains of an Alan who lived in the VI-IX centuries in the North Caucasus.
In the 6th century, the empire of the Huns collapsed, and they were replaced by the Turkic tribes, who formed the Turkic Khaganate on the territory of the former empire. Less than a hundred years later, it also split first into two states, and then into several smaller ones. Later, Turkic tribes periodically came from the east to the steppe, which mixed with the local population. Gradually, the steppe inhabitants, who spoke Indo-European languages, were replaced by the Turkic-speaking peoples, by origin, mainly from East Asia.
In the second work, an international group of scientists led by Eske Villerslev and Richard Durbin from the University of Cambridge traced the migration routes of people of the Yamnaya culture who inhabited the Caspian and Black Sea steppes in the 4th – 3rd millennia BC. Presumably, about four thousand years ago, nomads in Central Asia (people of the Botay culture) domesticated horses, and this was the impetus for the beginning of a wave of migrations. In particular, it is believed that in the III millennium BC, representatives of the Yamnaya culture and the Afanasyev culture close to it moved from Southern Siberia to Europe and Asia and were associated with the spread of Indo-European languages. In particular, they were related to the Botay who domesticated horses. But if the migration of people of the Yamnaya culture to Europe is confirmed by linguistic and archaeological evidence,the researchers still have not come to a consensus about the possible migration to Asia.
To clarify this issue, scientists analyzed the genomes of 74 people who lived in Eastern Europe, Western and Central Eurasia during the period 9000 BC - 1500 AD. For comparison, scientists used the genomes of 181 modern residents of Central Asia.
It turned out that there is no genetic connection between representatives of the Yamnaya culture and the Botay people. In addition, according to genetic data, the steppe inhabitants did indeed migrate to South Asia, and twice. But both waves had nothing to do with the people of the Yamnaya culture. The first wave of migration, presumably, took place at the beginning of the Bronze Age, even before its occurrence, and the second time the steppe people moved to the south after the disappearance of the Yamnaya culture, between 2300 and 1200 BC. This time, migrants probably brought Indo-Iranian languages to India.
It is possible that the steppe inhabitants suffered not only diseases, but also cannabis. Previously, researchers suggested that Europeans and East Asians grew this plant independently of each other, and throughout the continent, it spread along with the steppe. Another group of scientists found that representatives of the Yamnaya culture, during their migration to Europe, even reached Ireland.
Ekaterina Rusakova
